Found Floating
A review of Found Floating by Freeman Wills Crofts – 250523
If you are a writer and have been on what by the standards of the mid-1930s was a rather exotic holiday, then it is a shame to waste any of the material that you have gathered. So in 1937 just as Agatha Christie gave us Death on the Nile, the inestimable Freeman Wills published Found Floating, the sixteenth adventure involving his series detective, Inspector Joseph French. Being a man with an eye for detail and never one to spare his reader the benefit of every iota of information that he has gathered, we are treated to almost a chapter on the finer points of the cruise ship that French finds himself on, all in the line of duty of course, and a very detailed description of the detective’s peregrinations through Europe.
Although there is more than a little of what suspiciously like padding to this book, at its heart is a rather ingenious murder, although the basics of the plot are fairly familiar to seasoned readers of the genre. A family business, a bitter split between two brothers leaving one, William Carrington, in charge but in a quandary as to who to leave the firm to, Jim Musgrave, who is working there but seems to lack the drive to make a go of it, or his brother’s son, Mant Carrington, who is out in Australia. To the surprise of the family, William plumps for Mant, seemingly recalling him from Australia. Mant and Jim do not get on and Katherine Shirley, William’s niece and housekeeper, sees the look of murder on Jim’s face when he leaves the house after a stormy encounter with Mant.
Unsurprisingly, there is a murder and the victim is Mant but the circumstances are unusual. Acting upon the advice of the family doctor and Katherine’s beau, the wonderfully named Runciman Jellicoe, William takes the whole group on a Mediterranean cruise. At Ceuta, across the straits from Gibraltar, Mant seemingly leaves the ship for a late night stroll and is never seen again. His body is later fished out of the Med with severe lacerations to his limbs, signs that he had been bound and a gash to the head. Jim had also left the ship and was the only one of the group in evening dress when the captain broke the news of Mant’s disappearance.
The culprit seems to be too obvious and the stalwart French, who is assigned the case, is facing a dilemma as to how to spin out his investigations so that he can enjoy the unexpected luxury of a Mediterranean cruise. However, as he gets stuck into the case he realises that it is a little more complex and while it takes him an inordinate amount of time to recognise how Mant received his injuries switching the focus of his enquiries from shore to ship, it slowly dawns on him that roots of the case are buried in family history. An overlooked pool of sea water in a cabin gives the game away.
There are a couple of the intriguing aspects to this edition of the book. By the time the book was published Spain was in the grips of its Civil War, forcing the author to make it clear that the cruise took place before Spain and its environs became out of bounds. Events, dear boy, events. The second is that this edition, published by Collins Crime Club, features a running commentary in four parts interspersed throughout the text by a retired Big Bug from Scotland Yard, ex-Superintendent Walter Hambrook, who read the book as it was serialised in the Daily Mail and marks French’s card. While insufferably pompous Hambrook tends to agree with French’s approach and that the detective rather than feel miffed that he let the culprit avoid their day before the judge, he should compliment himself on a job well done.
Not French’s greatest case by a long chalk, but there is enough to keep the reader interested and even entertained.
